Looking for recommendations for PC upgrade since 2017

[Raynesis]

Hi all, looking for recommendations for PC upgrade (gaming / entertainment).

Current PC is from ~2017, and the FPS dips when playing some non-intensive games.
I no longer game as much, but it irks me when I need to use low or medium graphics settings when I do want to play any (prefer high to max on 1440p, >120 FPS).

• I mostly play MMO / FPS / MOBA.
• I also tend to keep tabs of Twitch or YouTube videos opened in the 2nd monitor while I play games, but the videos starts to freeze until I tab out of the game. Not sure if it is just browser resource limitation or hardware-related.

Other ailments aside from it being old:

• Can often fail to boot to Window if powered off (keeps saying something boot drive not found), so I try to keep the PC running if there is no need to shutdown. Otherwise I will need to keep restarting until it goes to Windows, or sometimes unplugging and plugging in RAM works (this method woks with old or new RAMs, so I do not think it is an issue with the RAMs, but the motherboard's instead).
• In recent months, the PC can very occasionally freeze and I will have to power off manually to restart. This can happening during gaming, or just opening media files, or watching YouTube.

I am not savvy with PC hardware/specs; current PC was built by fortran (not sure if he still does).
I do not mind going to SI, but not sure if they are reasonably priced especially since everything has become so expensive in the recent years.

- If there is one that is worth it, please point me to it.​

Self-assembly is not out of the question (never done it but should be easy to learn), but also do not mind paying a small assembly fee to save the trouble.


Exclude monitor; budget around SGD 2.5-3K?

Spoiler

ITEM	CURRENT (2017)	REMARKS	PROPOSAL	PRICE (SGD)
PROCESSOR	AMD RYZEN 5 1600
MOTHERBOARD	GIGABYTE AB350-GAMING 3
GRAPHICS CARD	NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070	OK WITH AMD OR NVIDIA; RTX 4090 TOO EXPENSIVE. DO NOT THINK I NEED RAY TRACING.
MEMORY	CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB PRO 32GB (2 X 16GB) DDR4 DRAM 3600MHZ C18 MEMORY KIT	RE-USE IF POSSIBLE (RECENT PURCHASE)
STORAGE 1 (OS)	CRUCIAL MX100 512GB SSD	CRYSTALDISKINFO HEALTH STATUS @ 82%
STORAGE 2 (GAME)	GIGABYTE AORUS NVME GEN4 M.2 1TB SSD	KEEP (RECENT PURCHASE)	-​
STORAGE 3 (DOCUMENTS)	SAMSUNG HD103SJ 1TB HDD	KEEP, BUT OPEN TO UPGRADE
STORAGE 4 (MEDIA)	WDC WD30EZRZ 3TB HDD	KEEP, BUT OPEN TO UPGRADE
OPTICAL DRIVE	SONY 880S 24X SATA DVD REWRITER DRIVE	NOT COMPULSORY; IT HAS JUST BEEN THERE	-​
POWER SUPPLY UNIT	SUPERFLOWER SF-750F14EG LEADEX II 750W FULL MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD POWER SUPPLY UNIT
CASING	FRACTAL DESIGN DEFINE R5 BLACKOUT EDITION W/ WINDOW MID TOWER USB 3.0 CHASSIS	DO NOT MIND REUSING IF IT FITS
MONITOR 1	ACER PREDATOR XB271HU	KEEP
MONITOR 2	DELL U2414H	PREFER SAME 27 INCH / 1440P / >144HZ AS MONITOR 1 BUT OPEN TO RECOMMENDATIONS WOULD USE AS MAIN MONITOR IF BETTER THAN CURRENT MONITOR 1
			TOTAL:​

Thanks in advance!

 

[Psycovirus]

I think I tried enabling / disabling the hardware accelaration before but did not see much of a difference... and I obviously would not want to lag my game (Overwatch for example).
I just remember it not being an issue maybe 2 years ago.

Oh. Hmm.. I had the same issue when my GPU is at 100%. So I just use Radeon Chill to limit my frame rate and that smoothen out watching videos on my 2nd screen.

 

[Raynesis]

Do you mean you resit the RAM or SSD? Resitting the ram shouldn't solve boot drive not found issue, it's a completely different part. Boot drive not found is more likely to do with your SSD (Boot Drive).


Run CrystalDiskMark or Atto Disk Benchmark on both your OS and Secondary SSDs, and see if it can complete a few runs. I think your SSD is gone.

Your 82% and all the symptoms you faced is a strong indicator already.

It was resitting the RAM; it could purely be coincidence but the past few times it worked.

I am planning to upgrade the SSD for my OS though!

Originally my OS and games were on the same 500gb SSD drive, which runs out of space quick, so I thought of buying 2 M.2 SSDs to split the OS and the games.
However I realized my motherboard only had 1 M.2 slot (unless I am wrong), so I only purchased and installed 1 for the games.

I thought I would get recommended a new motherboard with 2 M.2 slots, but that does not seem to the be case right now.

So now I am thinking of purchasing a SATA SSD, and whether to go through the hassle of making the M.2 store the OS instead of games. Maybe it does not matter.

 

[Psycovirus]

It was resitting the RAM; it could purely be coincidence but the past few times it worked.

I am planning to upgrade the SSD for my OS though!

Originally my OS and games were on the same 500gb SSD drive, which runs out of space quick, so I thought of buying 2 M.2 SSDs to split the OS and the games.
However I realized my motherboard only had 1 M.2 slot (unless I am wrong), so I only purchased and installed 1 for the games.

I thought I would get recommended a new motherboard with 2 M.2 slots, but that does not seem to the be case right now.

So now I am thinking of purchasing a SATA SSD, and whether to go through the hassle of making the M.2 store the OS instead of games. Maybe it does not matter.

For your info, NVMe is the same as PCIe thus you can always just get a PCIe card to expand your m.2 storage.

Your AB350-Gaming 3 has 3x PCIe 16x slots. First one is wired to run PCIe 3.0 16x (For GPU), 2nd slot is wired to run PCIe 3.0 4x. last one is PCIe 3.0 1x.

So you can buy a m.2 to PCIe adapter and plug into the 2nd slot of your motherboard. Example,
Ugreen PCIE to M2 Adapter NVMe M.2 PCI Express Adapter. Then just install another NVMe m.2 into that. Problem solved.

 

[Raynesis]

For your info, NVMe is the same as PCIe thus you can always just get a PCIe card to expand your m.2 storage.

Your AB350-Gaming 3 has 3x PCIe 16x slots. First one is wired to run PCIe 3.0 16x (For GPU), 2nd slot is wired to run PCIe 3.0 4x. last one is PCIe 3.0 1x.

So you can buy a m.2 to PCIe adapter and plug into the 2nd slot of your motherboard. Example,
Ugreen PCIE to M2 Adapter NVMe M.2 PCI Express Adapter. Then just install another NVMe m.2 into that. Problem solved.

I actually did read up on that, but I saw something like using PCIe would disable some SATA slots which I started getting confused, so I halted my purchase until I get my PC upgraded.

I will looking into it again, thanks!

 

[Psycovirus]

I actually did read up on that, but I saw something like using PCIe would disable some SATA slots which I started getting confused, so I halted my purchase until I get my PC upgraded.

I will looking into it again, thanks!

Checked your Motherboard manual.

For the 2nd PCIe x16 slot, if you plug in something, the 2 bottom 1x slots will be disabled. That's all.

For the disabling of SATA,
if you install a SATA drive in the only m.2 slot you have, it will disable ASATA slots. If you install an NVMe drive, it doesn't disable anything.

 

[Raynesis]

Checked your Motherboard manual.

For the 2nd PCIe x16 slot, if you plug in something, the 2 bottom 1x slots will be disabled. That's all.

For the disabling of SATA,
if you install a SATA drive in the only m.2 slot you have, it will disable ASATA slots. If you install an NVMe drive, it doesn't disable anything.

I will check it out later in the evening when I get home.

Thank you for looking into it and sharing the image!

 

[Raynesis]

Just purchased the Gigabyte M27Q-P monitor on Shopee at $596.

Only got told that it will stock in on 11 Jan after purchasing , but oh well, looking forward to it.

 

[Raynesis]

Checked your Motherboard manual.

For the 2nd PCIe x16 slot, if you plug in something, the 2 bottom 1x slots will be disabled. That's all.

For the disabling of SATA,
if you install a SATA drive in the only m.2 slot you have, it will disable ASATA slots. If you install an NVMe drive, it doesn't disable anything.

I think I have a bluetooth/wifi card plugged into the PCIEX1_2, and it is the most stable one over the several USB Bluetooth dongles I tried, so I am not sure if I want to lose it.

Might just have to upgrade the existing SATA SSD, to another SATA SSD.

 

[Psycovirus]

I think I have a bluetooth/wifi card plugged into the PCIEX1_2, and it is the most stable one over the several USB Bluetooth dongles I tried, so I am not sure if I want to lose it.

Might just have to upgrade the existing SATA SSD, to another SATA SSD.

Yes, those PCIe Wifi cards are very stable. They are usually based on Intel wifi chipset. USB ones are always questionable.

You can move the WIFI card from PCIEX1_2 to the top PCIEX1_1 and fully use the PCIEX4.

You can consider getting NVMe m.2 SATA if you wish to upgrade/replace your faulty SATA ssd in the slot since it is directly given 4x PCIe lanes from the CPU and won't affect any other slots.

Great purchase on the M27Q-P, a friend of mine bought one recently too and it is really great monitor.

 

[Raynesis]

Yes, those PCIe Wifi cards are very stable. They are usually based on Intel wifi chipset. USB ones are always questionable.

You can move the WIFI card from PCIEX1_2 to the top PCIEX1_1 and fully use the PCIEX4.

You can consider getting NVMe m.2 SATA if you wish to upgrade/replace your faulty SATA ssd in the slot since it is directly given 4x PCIe lanes from the CPU and won't affect any other slots.

Great purchase on the M27Q-P, a friend of mine bought one recently too and it is really great monitor.

Oh for some reason I did not see / think about moving the WiFi card to that slot.
I'll try it out over the weekend and hope it works!

Thanks!

 

[Psycovirus]

RTX 4070 Ti is rumored to be USD $899, same price as RX 7900XT. 7900 XT is SGD $1.4k here thus I estimate the 4070 Ti to be similar in price. It is still not the best value for money GPU but it would be perfect for 1440p 120hz+ gaming.

Well, Nvidia dropped the MSRP to $799 but the AIB cards are still expensive.
Zotac RTX 4070 Ti is the cheapest I can find at $1319. Kind of pricey but no other choice if you want a powerful GPU.

 

[Raynesis]

Just sharing some update if anyone cares.


Installed the following myself (first time doing so, yay!)

• CPU: Ryzen 7 5700X (I can feel the immediate performance upgrade )
• CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 (looked beefy so I bought it )

Gigabyte M27Q-P purchase failed, twice!
Both time the stores on Shopee had no stock, but did not state so.
Eventually they did not ship on time and the order was auto-cancelled.
Maybe no fate to upgrade the secondary monitor yet, not a big deal since it is not broken.

Still unsure about purchasing the graphics card yet.

 

[Raynesis]

Just another update:

Just purchased a RTX 4070Ti ZOTAC Trinity OC at SGD 1255.
By the way, my current 750W PSU should suffice right?
I was at another store and the lady was telling me 4000 series should use 850W and I felt like she was trying to upsell me so I moved on.


Still cannot find the monitor though.

 

[Raynesis]

Hey all, I am back, and facing an issue.

There have been some random PC crashes recently, and since the last crash just now, my Twitch streams are no longer smooth, and I am also getting bad FPS on WoW (logged in to check if something is wrong).
The weird thing is if I alt tab out of WoW (2nd monitor), the game becomes smooth, and when I make it active again, the FPS drops.

I briefly logged into other games such as Overwatch or random steam games and I do not feel the stutter.
However I do believe they are less intensive graphically, and I only tried the login screens -WoW stutters even at login screen.

This also led to me thinking if it is the CPU that is acting up, but I do not have any way to verify.
I am thinking of running some benchmarks on the CPU and GPU separately, but I do not know which to use.

Anyone have any ideas what could be the issue?

 

[kaixax555]

Hey all, I am back, and facing an issue.

There have been some random PC crashes recently, and since the last crash just now, my Twitch streams are no longer smooth, and I am also getting bad FPS on WoW (logged in to check if something is wrong).
The weird thing is if I alt tab out of WoW (2nd monitor), the game becomes smooth, and when I make it active again, the FPS drops.

I briefly logged into other games such as Overwatch or random steam games and I do not feel the stutter.
However I do believe they are less intensive graphically, and I only tried the login screens -WoW stutters even at login screen.

This also led to me thinking if it is the CPU that is acting up, but I do not have any way to verify.
I am thinking of running some benchmarks on the CPU and GPU separately, but I do not know which to use.

Anyone have any ideas what could be the issue?

You can use HWInfo to check the temps first and see if anything is odd with the temps

 

[katata]

hmm shouldnt be power supply. I'm running a RTX 3080 with 600w Gold PSU. The 4070ti is more power efficient than the 3080 so should be fine. Could be mobo/cpu i guess but i'm not sure. This sounds hard to isolate. Thats why i always just buy everything new except SSD/HDD.

To test your CPU, you could try Cinebench, for RAM testing you can use memtest86

 

[Raynesis]

hmm shouldnt be power supply. I'm running a RTX 3080 with 600w Gold PSU. The 4070ti is more power efficient than the 3080 so should be fine. Could be mobo/cpu i guess but i'm not sure. This sounds hard to isolate. Thats why i always just buy everything new except SSD/HDD.

To test your CPU, you could try Cinebench, for RAM testing you can use memtest86

I upgraded to Win11 about 2 weeks ago just to try it out, and aside from random crashes, the games were working fine, until 2 days ago when it crashed.

I had already re-installed Win11 again the day I posted about the problem, but still facing the same issue; normal usage is fine and you cannot really notice a difference.
However you can notice certain stutterness when performing certain actions, such as moving a window (not 100% replicable).
Logging into WoW is still 100% stuttering the moment the login screen shows up (only WoW stutters, not the whole PC).
Similarly, when I click on my 2nd monitor, I can see the game becoming smooth as butter.

I also tried swapping to my old GTX1070 and it still has the same stuttering on WoW.

I played some OW2 yesterday, and full screen mode at 144 FPS was smooth.
However when I switch to borderless window mode, even if it shows 144 FPS, it still stutters.
- I think the FPS could be more, I just locked it to 144 FPS in the game settings to match the 144hz monitor.

I will try the benchmarks you have suggested later tonight.
If there is still nothing that stands out, I will probably try re-installing as Win10.

 

[katata]

I upgraded to Win11 about 2 weeks ago just to try it out, and aside from random crashes, the games were working fine, until 2 days ago when it crashed.

I had already re-installed Win11 again the day I posted about the problem, but still facing the same issue; normal usage is fine and you cannot really notice a difference.
However you can notice certain stutterness when performing certain actions, such as moving a window (not 100% replicable).
Logging into WoW is still 100% stuttering the moment the login screen shows up (only WoW stutters, not the whole PC).
Similarly, when I click on my 2nd monitor, I can see the game becoming smooth as butter.

I also tried swapping to my old GTX1070 and it still has the same stuttering on WoW.

I played some OW2 yesterday, and full screen mode at 144 FPS was smooth.
However when I switch to borderless window mode, even if it shows 144 FPS, it still stutters.
- I think the FPS could be more, I just locked it to 144 FPS in the game settings to match the 144hz monitor.

I will try the benchmarks you have suggested later tonight.
If there is still nothing that stands out, I will probably try re-installing as Win10.

OH... wait i think there are two separate issues. Crashing and stuttering. Lets fix stuttering first. Does your monitor have gsync? Because I encountered this issue myself. If you change WoW to fullscreen instead of borderless window the stuttering goes away right? I'm at work now let me try to remember how to fix it. Going back to windows 10 wont fix it, i had the same issue. You have two monitors connected if I'm not wrong? one with gsync and one without

 

[katata]

Ok I'm pretty sure the issue you are facing is a bug with gsync and windows. It happens when you are connecting two or more monitors with different refresh rates. E.g. 1 monitor 60hz, 2nd monitor 144hz.
Make sure that your Geforce drivers are up to date and open up your nvidia control panel and make sure that "windowed and fullscreen is selected"
image (the image shows the wrong option)

You could also give this link a read

reddit

Others have also recommended closing the game and then doing the following:

• Disable G-Sync and click "Apply".
• Enable G-Sync and click "Apply".

Or pressing Alt-Enter in game, stuff like that. You'll have to mess around.

I forgot i had this issue because after i shifted house i had to disconnect my 2nd monitor cuz no space and i stopped having any problems

 

[Raynesis]

Ok I'm pretty sure the issue you are facing is a bug with gsync and windows. It happens when you are connecting two or more monitors with different refresh rates. E.g. 1 monitor 60hz, 2nd monitor 144hz.
Make sure that your Geforce drivers are up to date and open up your nvidia control panel and make sure that "windowed and fullscreen is selected"
(the image shows the wrong option)

You could also give this link a read


Others have also recommended closing the game and then doing the following:

• Disable G-Sync and click "Apply".
• Enable G-Sync and click "Apply".

Or pressing Alt-Enter in game, stuff like that. You'll have to mess around.

I forgot i had this issue because after i shifted house i had to disconnect my 2nd monitor cuz no space and i stopped having any problems

I will take a closer look at your attached info after work tonight.

However I have already tweaked G-Sync stuff and it did not work.
In fact, I tried only plugging in just one monitor and WoW would still have low FPS from the login screen (I basically start WoW and see if the frames are stuttering to verify whether my attempts at fixing worked).